Trying to foretell the long run is not possible. The lack of lottery wins, flying vehicles, or dystopian post-apocalyptic hellscapes is a little bit of a giveaway. But, relating to audio, predicting the close to future is feasible, and an enormous chunk of tomorrow’s audio is probably going Lindemann Musicbook Combo formed!

The Musicbook Combo addresses a niche in fashionable audio; the small, high-performance built-in amplifier with a very good audio streamer. The audio world wants a small field to take a seat on a bookshelf slightly than a devoted stand. It additionally requires a product that’s straightforward to put in and function. And it must sound good. The Lindemann Musicbook Combo does all these issues.

Does all of it

Lindemann’s elegant little field is a deceptively highly effective and versatile gadget. Delivering a wholesome 70W into eight ohms, the amp features a community participant, DAC, MM phono stage, and two line-level analogue inputs. You can join it to A2DP-compatible Bluetooth gadgets, native networks, and on-line streaming providers through a router. You can play thumb drives or CDs from a CD-ROM drive inserted into the rear USB connector. There’s a good-quality headphone socket.

Everything is pushed from Lindemann’s iOS or Android app, and there’s a healthily sized yellow OLED read-out on the entrance panel. The amp’s management is minimal, only a energy button and a jog wheel, however this final double up as quantity and supply selector. There can be a mini-remote with track-handling performance, however contemplate this an adjunct to the app.

Once you go deeper, you start to see why the Musicbook Combo is so highly effective. First, it upconverts any PCM sign to DSD as commonplace (utilizing an AK4137 upsampler), however this may be deactivated, and any PCM indicators are saved bit-perfect to the dual AK4493 DACs and synchronised towards an ultraprecise MEMS-Femtoclock. It will be run wired or wirelessly (inside 10m from a wi-fi router) into your Local Area Network. It’s completely Roon Ready and works with Tidal Connect, Qobuz, High Res Audio.com, Spotify Connect, Deezer and extra. If you just like the pitter-patter of tiny Lindemanns round the home, there may be additionally a multi-room characteristic.

Appiness is a heat iPad

While it’s notionally attainable to function the Musicbook Combo with no smartphone or pill, it’s like asking a ballet dancer to bop Swan Lake in leg irons. The absolute pleasure of the Lindemann design and why it justifies that ‘it’s the long run’ epithet is how nicely it really works with its app (and apps like Roon). This is one thing we sometimes battle to reconcile; a product just like the Musicbook Combo should stay in that app-based ecosystem at present.

Sadly, too many audio corporations appear to be extra about ‘pivoting’ towards the place Lindemann already occupies. The business is probably universally responsible of being behind the curve right here; we, as audio writers, are extra wrapped up within the {hardware} than within the interplay between that {hardware} and the app. In the actual world, folks care extra about how that app works and the way the product interacts with the app. In our defence, the app is commonly nonetheless a piece in progress when the product will get into our palms, however once more in the actual world, such a midway home is indefensible. Rant mode: disengaged.

Fortunately, the Lindemann app is a pleasure to make use of. It’s simply the best stability of ‘informative’ with out being ‘busy’, and it responds rapidly. Once arrange (no large deal), the Combo additionally handshakes with different apps like Tidal or Roon, which means they do all of the heavy lifting, and the Combo reacts appropriately. I’d put this on a par with the higher company-made apps on the market; it’s not as intuitive as Sonos (few are), but it surely’s definitely straightforward to navigate and extremely reactive.

Wired or wi-fi

I attempted connecting the Lindemann Musicbook Combo in each wired and wi-fi LAN settings, however in equity, my wi-fi router is simply about 1.5m from the Combo’s twin aerials. This means I may detect no sound high quality or latency variations between wired and wi-fi connections. If pressed, I’d go for the wired connection, however that’s extra to do with private desire than noticed variations. The Combo appears to make no distinctions both manner.

Running Lindemann’s personal Streaming 4.0 platform and app, the Combo labored like a appeal. The app gently guides you to constructing playlists in a extra thought of manner than observe aggregation, however solely as a result of I discovered playlist creation is extra looking back and made out of the last-played choice. I desire this extra reflective strategy; it acts somewhat extra like Roon. Streaming 4.0 and Roon work very properly collectively, and I discovered myself in that Roon area so much right here.

The sound of the Combo is obvious and clear, reducing a fragile stability and all the time staying on the best aspect of ‘scientific’. Perhaps most noticeable is that this ‘spring water’ sound applies universally; there’s no level the place the sound warms up or blurs throughout the board. While which may sound like it might deter valve-amp customers and their seeming love of euphony, I believe they want the readability and focus of that Lindemann sound.

Go-to albums

My go-to albums for testing midrange readability and bass – Stella di Napoli by Joyce DiDonato [Erato] and The Last Resort by Trentemøller [Poker Flat] – highlighted exactly what the Lindemann Musicbook Combo does so nicely, as they delivered all of the element and perception required to make the previous album come alive and all of the precision and drive wanted to make the latter sound scary. But, in equity, what the Combo did proper, it did proper universally.

There’s a cause we use these discs again and again. While massively fulfilling to listen to, I’m not going to extract review-grade data from a Half Man Half Biscuit album, however Achtung Bono [Probe Plus] wants one thing correct to serve up the lyrics of ‘Joy Division Oven Gloves’ with out it sounding too spikey and uncooked whereas retaining the great belt-fed surrealist sarcasm dripping from each line. And Lindemann’s Combo makes quick work of traces like ‘Nero fiddles whereas Gordon Burns/In his Joy Division Oven Gloves.’

Everything I performed was given a good listening to by the Lindemann Musicbook Combo, which is extraordinarily uncommon at this stage. The clear, exact sound makes the Lindemann so musically versatile. I went from operetta to electro to sarky post-punk from the Wirral after which to Bach innovations, again through Dylan’s Desire [Capitol], over to some basic early Nineteen Nineties Acid Jazz, and so it went on.

Class act

Getting that a lot from a small field with out it going into melt-down mode can solely imply one factor – Class D energy amp operation. And this can trigger some audiophiles to press the ejector seat on precept. More idiot them; they’re lacking a exact, correct, musically targeted, detailed, articulate and extremely dynamic sound, particularly when the goal loudspeaker viewers is taken into account.

With spiralling gas payments which means the operating prices of a pure Class A amplifier start to get somewhat noticeable, the good sound and funky operating Lindemann makes a strong case for itself. I really feel what’s contained in the field is functionally unimportant so long as it really works nicely; the way it sounds and operates issues.

Don’t diss

So, are there any downsides to the Musicbook Combo? Surprisingly few, until you’re within the behavior of ‘dissing’ issues for being one thing they weren’t supposed to be. It’s not meant to drive £300,000 tower loudspeakers with an impedance plot that eats amplifiers, however I used the Combo with KEF’s LS50 Meta, and the 2 labored collectively so nicely, so I felt no must look additional. I need transferring coil compatibility alongside transferring magnet, however not if it sacrifices the efficiency of the MM stage because it stands. I’d additionally desire if its Bluetooth connection included aptX HD (which might help as much as 24bit, 48kHz PCM) alongside A2DP, however that is removed from a deal-breaker. And realistically, that’s about it!

The Lindemann Musicbook Combo is without doubt one of the methods good audio reaches these it can’t. It’s sufficiently small to be domestically acceptable. It’s highly effective sufficient to drive the loudspeakers it’s going to almost certainly associate with and sounds good. It’s made to be app-chummy and stay fortunately in that area, and the app works exceptionally nicely. If that is the face of audio’s future, it’s vivid and rosy!

Technical specs

• Type streaming built-in amplifier
• Power output 2×130W into 4Ω, 2× 70W into 8Ω
• Analogue inputs MM cartridge (RCA), two line-level (RCA)
• Analogue outputs one line-level (RCA), 6.35mm headphone jack, 2× BFA speaker terminals
• MM specs 47kΩ, 150pF, 40dB achieve
• Digital inputs Coaxial and optical S/PDIF, USB 2.0, 100Mbits/s RJ45 LAN, 2× antenna (Bluetooth, WLAN)
• Bluetooth 4.2, A2DP
• DAC decision as much as 768kHz, 32bit PCM and DSD 512
• Supported codecs WAV, FLAC, AIFF, ALAC, MP3, AAC, Ogg Vorbis, WMA, DSD
• Network UPnP and DLNA help
• Dimensions (W×H×D) 28 × 22 × 6.3cm
• Weight 3kg
• Price £4,490

Manufacturer

Lindemann Audio

lindemann-audio.de

UK Distributor

Signature Audio Systems

signaturesystems.co.uk 

+44(0)7738 007776

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